TROWER ROBIN, BRIDGE OF SIGHS. TABLATURE
Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs
Series: Guitar Recorded Version TAB
Artist: Robin Trower
All 8 songs from the 1974 recording by this bluesy psychedelic British guitarist. Includes: About to Begin • Bridge of Sighs • Day of the Eagle • The Fool and Me • In This Place • Lady Love • Little Bit of Sympathy • Too Rolling Stoned. The first Robin Trower songbook ever!
Inventory #HL 00690683
ISBN: 9780634078491
UPC: 073999172058
Width: 9.0"
Length: 12.0"
80 pages
Song List:
About To Begin
Bridge Of Sighs
Day Of The Eagle
The Fool And Me
In This Place
Lady Love
Little Bit Of Sympathy
Too Rolling Stoned
ROBIN TROWER
BRIDGE OF SIGHS
(CHRYSALIS, 1974)
PRODUCED BY MATTHEW FISHER
ROBIN TROWER KNOWS that Twice Removed from Yesterday,
the 1973 solo debut he made after leaving Procol
Harum, painted the picture of a guitarist very
much obsessed with Jimi Hendrix. "I think I had to
really go through the Jimi Hendrix sort of thing,"
Trower says of the Jimi tones that screamed from the
strings of his Stratocaster on that album. The homage
was a good one, establishing Trower as a guitar force
to be reckoned with after four years of his wallowing
in the keyboard-heavy arrangements of Procol Harum.
But Trower knew that he needed to make more of
an original statement with his sophomore effort. "I
had to develop my own thing for Bridge of Sighs, in
terms of writing and coming up with ideas," he says.
"I'm not saying Bridge of Sighs is not Hendrix-influenced,
but 1think I took it a lot further."
Indeed, the album remains Trower's defining moment,
the quintessential statement of a 25-year career in which
he's played rock, funk, jazz and blues. The Hendrixisms
are still part of his repertoire, but Bridge of Sighs shows
Trower finding a distinctive voice, mixing lightning riffs
with aching, bent-note solos and bluesy vamps-all
within the context of solid, memorable songs.
"I was trying to do what I would call a modern
blueslr&blrock album," Trower explains. '" felt like
I wanted to write a modern blues song, a song that
was like a Bobby Bland, B.B. King kind of thing combined
with some really modern sounds."
Some of the songs on Bridge of Sighs were already
in the works before Trower and his band-singerbassist
James Dewar and drummer Reg Isadorebegan
recording the album. Two of the songs, "Lady
Love" and "Little Bit of Sympathy," were leftovers
from the Twice Removed from Yesterday sessions,
and the trio had been playing them in their live S'et.
The title track, meanwhile, was written on the
road. "The first time we played it was in San Francisco,
at Winterland," Trower remembers. "I only had
one verse, so Jimmy had to sing the same verse twice.
"We got a standing ovation in the middle of the set
that first time, so we knew we had something there."
"Too Rolling Stoned" was another road song, and
Trower fesses up to copping one of the song's trademark
licks from a James Brown tune. "It was called
'Down and Out in New York City,' and it was from the
movie Black Caesar," Trower says. "I lifted the chord
changes of what I call the 'kind of bridge part' •.. the
turnaround in the song. It's not an uncommon chord
sequence; it's just that I heard it there and thought,
'Well, that's nice. That would work really nice.' It's
a bit naughty to do that, but .. ."
He credits another soul singer, Donny Hathaway,
along with the group War as the inspirations for "In
This Place." "I was really into 'The World is a Ghetto'
at that time," he says. "I used to play it all the time."
And "Day of the Eagle," the album's lead-off track
and single, was simply "one of those songs where
you come up with a giant riff, basically," Trower
says. "I remember coming up with it and thinking,
'Yes, please .. : and came up with the lyric pretty
quickly. It's an anti-war song, obviously, isn't it?"
With the trio already tight from months of touring,
and with many of the songs road-tested--including the
two already in the can-Trower says the Bridge of
Sighs sessions went "swimmingly easy." By his recollection,
the group blew into Air London Studios with
producer Matthew Fisher and engineer Geoff Emerick,
and blew out 17 days later with a finished product
Released in early 1974, Bridge of Sighs hit Number
7 on the Billboard charts. Its follow-up, For Earth
Below, actually peaked two places higher, but Bridge
remains the seminal work. Trower freely acknowledges
its stature, still playing four or five of the
album's songs at his shows.
"It's very powerful," says the guitarist. "You listen
to it, and it sounds very complete-just the
strength of the writing, more than any other thing.
That's what sets it apart from perhaps all my other
albums. I just think the writing was very strong."
But, he adds with a laugh, "I can't listen to the
guitar playing on it, not now. I hear it and I just say,
'Oh no, no no. That's no good.' But overall, it just really
works, and I'm glad for that:'
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